


Bare

by KuriQuinn



Series: SasuSakuFestival2017 [12]
Category: Naruto
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Blood and Injury, Companion Piece, Companionable Snark, Drama, F/M, Fluff, Humor, Romance, Sakura's a little shit, SasuSaku - Freeform, Sasuke Never Leaves Konoha, Sasuke has the emotional range of a teaspoon, Snark, Stitches, prompt: the virgin sees, ssfest17, turning the tables
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-02-26
Updated: 2017-02-26
Packaged: 2018-09-26 23:58:07
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,402
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9934874
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/KuriQuinn/pseuds/KuriQuinn
Summary: Sasuke looks as if he has been turned to stone, his hands clenching around the kit. If she didn't think he could turn any redder, she was mistaken. For several seconds his eyes zero in on everything below her neck. Sakura feels the warmth in her cheeks travel downward at this, and trying for confidence, she purrs, "Like what you see?" [SasuSaku Festival 2017 – Day 12 – Prompt: "The Virgin Sees"]





	

**Author's Note:**

> Disclaimer: This story utilizes characters, situations and premises that are copyright Masashi Kishimoto, Shueisha, Shonen Jump and Viz Media. No infringement on their respective copyrights pertaining to episodes, novelizations, comics or short stories is intended by the author in any way, shape or form. This fan oriented story is written solely for the author's own amusement and the entertainment of the readers. It is not for profit. Any resemblance to real organizations, institutions, products or persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental. All fiction, plot and Original Characters with the exception of those introduced in the books, manga, video games, novelizations and anime, are the sole creation of KuriQuinn and using them without permission is considered rude, in bad-taste and will reflect seriously on your credibility as a writer. You will be torn apart by mercenary ninja with bad fashion sense should you be found plagiarising.
> 
> Warning: Maybe slight OOC, but only because they are from a different universe. Sasuke never left Konoha.
> 
> Canon-Compliance: Takes place during Part II. Alternate Universe.
> 
> Fanon Compliance: Could conceivably take place in my Walk A Mile timeline
> 
> AN: This is unedited. Sorry, there was family stuff that got in the way of updates. Also, CEO & Assistant prompt is still being worked on. I'll try for tomorrow.

** **

* * *

It starts out as a run-of-the-mill information retrieval mission.

Simple, straightforward – they don't even need the whole team. It's just as well, Kakashi has been helping Naruto improve his change of nature techniques, and Sakura's been hoping for some quality alone-time with Sasuke.

Between everyone's training regimen, it's hard to find the time to just be two fifteen-year-olds in not-quite-love-but-slowly-getting-past-like.

So when Lady Tsunade proposes the mission – retrieve some stolen documents from a group of mercenary ninja and deliver it to the intended recipients – Sakura jumps on it. It's easy, requiring stealth and intelligence, which both she and Sasuke excel at.

Everything goes perfectly, until it turns out one of the enemy is a sensor type.

Sakura and Sasuke's carefully planned infiltration and extraction gets turned into an all-out brawl. They get the documents, but they've been made, and are now being hunted through the forests.

And on top of that, a shuriken has just become deeply embedded in the fleshy part beneath Sakura's left shoulder blade. Sasuke hangs back, ready to grab her, but she steadies herself mid-stumble.

"I'm fine," she insists, despite the cold pain and the feel of blood soaking through her shirt.

Sasuke considers her, and she knows from the expression he is weighing their options. If the wound is deep, blood-loss will make a long-range spring impossible, but in their current situation they're at the disadvantage.

"We need a distraction," he says. "You or me?"

The fact that he isn't even acknowledging her wound shows how far they've come over the years. He knows she can take care of herself.

She smirks. "Well, you're pretty, but I don't think you're their type."

The corner of his mouth tugs upward at this, and he nods, turning to leave.

"Five minutes," he tells her. "Three if you don't have a choice."

And then he is gone. Seconds later, the enemy catches up and she is surrounded on all sides by half-a-dozen missing-nin dressed in black.

"Seriously?" she asks as the closest ones lunge at her. "Why do people like you always dress in black?" She bends into her taijutsu forms, dodging blows and more volleys of shuriken. "Wouldn't it be smarter for mercenaries to dress in camouflage?"

One of them tries to slip past her and she tosses an exploding tax in front of him, forcing him to jump backward to avoid the explosion. Her shoulder burns and her side is now slick with blood, but she knows her limits. It's just a matter of making it through the time limit –

She manages for four minutes before she begins to feel lightheaded, and is forced to make another quick getaway.

As she flits through the trees, she hears the raucous laughs and victory shouts, because they think they have her on the run – a wounded wolf being chased back to her den.

Up ahead, she sees Sasuke, waiting on the other side of a clearing. His finger flash in something that anyone else would interpret as hand signs from a distance, but which she reads as a series of numbers. Grid coordinates, just as they've practiced.

Still running full-speed ahead, she assesses the open space, makes a quick calculation in her head, and then dives into the air. It's difficult to twist her body to avoid the razor thin wires, especially given her wound, but she manages it. Her pursuers won't notice their presence until it is too late.

And she's through.

She botches the landing, however, stumbling and rolling once she hits the ground. Still, she doesn't stop, stagger-crawling onward and glancing over her shoulder to make sure she is in the clear

The mercenary-nin enter the clearing as well, see her on the ground and assume she has succumbed to her injury. There's more yelling, more promises of a slow and painful death, and several of them dive into the air toward her –

The minute they are airborne, Sasuke's fist fills with electricity and he hurls it forward. The wires come alive with a current, and a giant spider's web of lightning jolts to life below the mercenaries. It's far too late for them to react to it, electricity surging through their bodies, and within moments, there are heaps of unconscious mercenaries lying among the grass and tree roots.

In a final move, Sakura pulls back her arm – the side that isn't injured – and shoves a precise burst of chakra into the ground. The area of the clearing splinters, collapsing beneath the unconscious men and burying them in the eroding rubble.

It will be a while before any of them are able to follow her or Sasuke.

"Nice teamwork," she beams at him, going down on one knee.

Sasuke scowls.

"They were already unconscious," he points out. "You wasted your strength, and now I have to carry you."

She sticks out her tongue. "Well, that will be a break from usual, then. Usually I'm the one carrying you."

He mutters something unintelligible and probably insulting under his breath, then scoops her up in a fireman hold – he can't risk jostling or removing the shuriken just yet – and they're off.

Sakura shamelessly uses the opportunity to admire his backside as he runs.

They stop only when Sasuke is sure that they've reached safety.

There a small, shaded glade near a river, with enough leave coverage to keep them out of the eye of anyone who might come looking. He puts her down carefully and begins to examine the wound.

"It's deep but it hasn't hit anything vital," he informs her.

"I could have told you that."

She tries to reach her arm around to examine it herself with her fingertips, but can't quite reach.

"Stop that," he orders. "You'll tear it further. I shouldn't have to tell you this."

"Right, because you make such great decisions when it comes to your health."

"I'm not a trained medical-nin."

"So that's an excuse to get yourself half-killed?"

His only response is a glower.

"How about instead of shooting me dirty looks you stitch me up?" she suggests. It's not an unreasonable expectation, he's done it before. "Do you still have that healing balm Naruto asked Hinata to give you?"

"Yes, it's in my pack."

"We'll need that when we're done. For now, though, go get some water."

"Hm." He turns and heads for the spring. "Wait here."

Sakura reaches into her own pack, digging for her suture kit and lays it out. Then, with minimal maneuvering, she pulls her shirt and sports bra off. She swears as some of the threads get stuck on the shuriken, which she tugs out and quickly compresses with a cloth. The sooner Sasuke stitches this up, the better –

There's a muffled thump behind her and she whips around, clenching a fist in expectation of an enemy ninja being behind her. Instead, she finds Sasuke, jaw dropped and cheeks flushed with colour, the canteen lying at his feet.

"Sasuke?" she questions, unsure at first what has him so startled. It takes a few extra seconds before she realises it's her bare breasts that are throwing him off. Her mouth tugs into a rueful smile. "If I was anyone else right now, I'd've bled out in the amount of time it's taken you to get around to treating my wound. Now are you going to do something, or do I have to find a mirror and do it myself?"

He visibly shakes himself out of his daze, but has begun to blush furiously. It would be amusing if she didn't have an open wound right now.

"We're in a combat situation," she reminds him, "can you maybe think with your upstairs brain?"

His mouth shuts with an audible click, and the look he gives her is beyond annoyed. But he picks up the canteen and makes his way over. He looks everywhere but at her chest and goes to sit behind her. She hears rummaging among the sutures.

"What does it look like?"

"Like a gash."

"Very funny, Sasuke. I mean, how deep is it?"

"Nothing vital was clipped, it's just deep," he says. "I'm going to clean it and get started on the stitches. Try not to move."

They are quiet as he begins to thread the needle through her skin. The job is long and tedious, and she needs something to occupy her mind so she doesn't wince every time she feels the thread going through.

"So…" she begins. "I never realised you were so easily flustered."

The needle pauses. "What?"

"I mean, it's a little weird. You spent six months in my body before this, seeing me without a shirt on shouldn't be anything new."

"We were twelve," he snaps, a strained note in his voice. "And you didn't have…" She notices his unoccupied hand make a vague motion out of the corner of her eye. "… those."

"The word you're looking for is breasts," she supplies, amused. "And while I'm glad you've noticed them, they really haven't changed all that much."

"Yeah, well, I wasn't exactly sitting in front of a mirror making an in-depth catalogue of your freckle-to-skin ratio back then," Sasuke replies defensively, jabbing the needle through her shoulder a little more forcefully than it needs to go.

Sakura hisses in reaction, and tries to glare at him over her shoulder. He, in turn, is staring at her shoulder wound as if it holds the secrets of the universe and he can't afford to lose his concentration. Her annoyance turns to curiosity, because she only ever sees Sasuke get like that in two cases – when he is furious or when he is uncomfortable. Considering the situation, she hazards a guess that it's the latter.

But why? It's not as if he…

Well, he's had to have seen a naked woman before, right? Even aside from the utterly bizarre swap they underwent when they were genin, he should have had the opportunity. They've both studied biology, with diagrams and everything. He is the student of Kakashi Hatake, the most perverted shinobi in Konoha since Jiraiya, and teammates with Naruto, who not only parades around with his horrible Sexy Jutsu but has been known to sneak into the women's bathhouse. She can just picture him dragging Sasuke along.

"I don't get it," she says. "You've seen Naruto. Seeing a naked –"

"Naruto isn't _real_ like –" Sasuke snaps, before abruptly cutting his words off at the back of his throat, like his mouth betrayed him.

"Like I'm real?" she supplies, her own cheeks turning pink.

"…"

"So just now, that was the first time you've really seen a naked woman?"

"I'm not talking about this with you."

"But you just mean real, like, _alive_ , right? You've seen – I mean, I've been to Naruto's apartment – I _lived_ with Kakashi, I know guys have stashes of those magazines. You have to have..." He growls slightly. "Oh. Wow." Another idea occurs to her, and before she can stop herself, she blurts out, "Does that mean you've also never…?"

"Never what?" he asks tightly, like he's already regretting asking.

"You know…" This time it's Sakura that makes a vague motion with her hands. It's difficult, because of the angle, but the message gets through. She feels him fumble with the needle and yelp.

"No!"

"Oh."

There is a heavy, uncomfortable silence.

"That actually explains a lot," she finally says.

"What's that supposed to – wait." His voice drops in suspicion and something like wary curiosity. "Have _you_?"

Sakura's cheeks are definitely warmer than they were before, but she tamps down any sense of embarrassment. Medic ninja don't get embarrassed by this sort of thing.

"It's a natural biological function, of course I have," she sniffs. "Which is why I don't believe you haven't. Unless – unless you're just not interested. Which is okay, too, I guess." She really hopes it's not the case. "Lot's of people don't –"

"I'm interested, okay?" Sasuke barks. "I'm very, very interested." When she turns to shoot him an amused, challenging look, he scowls. "You know what I mean."

"Kind of don't."

"It's about having discipline."

"Are you sure it's not about having some kind of health issue? If you don't ever get arou –"

"Stop talking!" he cries. "I do, but I can control it. It's just a matter of focus. End of discussion."

"What's the point, though?"

"I'm done," he announces, and stands up. She turns around in time to see him jump to his feet and hurry back to the spring as if he's been burned or as if she has some kind of transmissible disease.

 _Right, because avoiding the problem will make it go away_ , she thinks peevishly, distractedly checking the sutures. They're a little sloppy, but well-executed. He must have been really distracted by the topic of conversation.

And he still hasn't answered her.

A mad idea occurs to her then. She almost dismisses it right out – but then figures, she might not get another chance like this. It's rare that they are alone together these days, even rarer that they are sent out on the same mission. Can't just run away from her in the middle of a mission – even if the mission is pretty much complete and might as well just be a stroll through the woods at this point.

In a fit of bravery, she strips off the rest of her clothing, dropping it in a pile at her feet and waits for Sasuke to return from the spring, hands on her hips.

He's several feet away before he clues into what he's seeing, and then he freezes.

Sasuke looks as if he has been turned to stone, his hands clenching around the kit in his hands. If she didn't think he could turn any redder, she was mistaken. For several seconds his eyes zero in on everything below her neck. Sakura feels the warmth in her cheeks travel downward at this, and trying for confidence, she purrs, "Like what you see?"

Sasuke's head practically jerks up, but instead of meeting her eyes, he looks to the side. "Sakura…why…why are you…?"

"You can't be flustered like this," she tells him. "Naked people happen. Sometimes you end up having to help them, especially in rescue or disaster situations. Not everyone has time to get dressed when something happens, and you can't –"

"I…don't have a problem with naked people," he grits out through clenched teeth.

"Oh, really?"

He makes a strangled sound low in his throat, which might be an affirmative; she watches his fists clench and unclench, his Adam's apple bobbing as he swallows. Sasuke is doing everything in his power not to look at her right now, and it's actually bothering her.

In fact, she's a little hurt.

"Sasuke, look at me."

"No."

"I'm giving you permission."

"No."

"Why not?"

"Because you're…"

"Naked, yes, we've established that," she rolls her eyes. "And to tell you the truth, the fact that my boyfriend doesn't want to see me naked? It's kind of insulting."

"What? No!" he actually does look at her now – briefly – before again averting his gaze. "That's not – I _want_ to, just not –"

"Just not?"

"Like…this."

"Then how."

"Could you just – please put your clothes back on?"

Sakura hesitates, and then sighs in frustration. Slowly she gathers up her pants and tunic and pulls them back on. She doesn't bother with the bra – the bandages won't allow for it, and thankfully she's small enough that it isn't really a major issue.

Sasuke twitches with every rustle of her clothing, and when she's done, she grumbles, "It's fine. You can look now, I'm decent."

He exhales, and she practically watches the tension flow from his body.

"I'm sorry for putting you through such a hardship," she bites out, balling her hands into fists. "Let me make it easier on you and give you some space. I've got to figure out where we are anyway, so –"

She begins to breeze by him, but his hand snaps out and grabs hold of her wrist. "Sakura –"

"It's fine, Sasuke."

"No, it's not."

She takes a few calming breaths, fighting down her annoyance. She has no right to be angry about this, it's not like he can help being uncomfortable. Even if she is hurt, she isn't going to let this ruin their relationship.

"Forget it, Sasuke, it's alright. We'll pretend this didn't happen, okay? We'll never talk about it again if that's what you want."

"That's not what I want," he tells her, tugging her back so that she is facing him. His entire face is drawn tight, as if in concentration, like he's trying his best to find the right words. "Sakura, when I think of…when I think of seeing you like that, it's not in a forest in the middle of nowhere, or with you wounded on a mission or stripping of your clothes to make a point. It's in our home, with me taking off your clothes, because we both want to."

He is as red as his favourite fruit now, cringing as if worried she will be offended and take a swing at him. But Sakura isn't focussed on the imagery of his little confession, so much as the word choice.

"'Our'?" she repeats.

"What?"

"You said 'our'. 'Our' home."

If possible, he turns redder. "I meant –"

"Sasuke, are you asking me…?"

"No! Yes. Not…not yet." He shifts uncomfortably. "But one day."

They are silent, then, the implications settling over both of them. Sakura isn't sure what to say to that.

"I…" she begins, her emotions gravitating between being utterly confused and utterly pleased. "I didn't realise you would be traditional about this sort of thing."

He shrugs. "It's something my father said once."

"Your father? You must have been very young."

"He didn't say it to me," Sasuke admits. In a lower voice he adds, "He didn't ever really say a lot to me. It was a conversation with Itachi, but I listened in. I did that a lot."

The usual dark expression passes over his features, and she winds her wrist out of his hold so that she is now clasping his hand, offering him a comforting squeeze. "What did he say?"

Sasuke returns the brief pressure. "He said there are certain experienced – certain privileges that you share only with the person that you intend to spend the rest of your life with. As much as I…as much as I _want_ …"

He trails off, looking at her meaningfully.

"You're trying to honour his memory."

"Hm."

There's another lull in the conversation as Sakura processes this. Then, "Okay."

Sasuke blinks. "What?"

"Okay. We can wait," she repeats. "I promise I won't assault your virgin eyes with my naked flesh again before you're ready."

He makes a face at this. "It sounds much less noble when it's clear you're mocking me."

"I'm not mocking you. I think it's sweet."

"'Sweet'," he repeats, distaste filling the lone syllable.

"Yeah," she says, smiling at him. "It's not a side of you I get to see very often. I like it. And I'm alright with waiting, if that's important to you."

"Thank you," he hedges, still sounding suspicious.

She beams and leans in to kiss him – before abruptly pulling back.

"Wait – is this okay?" she asks. "I wouldn't want to compromise your _discipline_ by making you feel a–"

Sasuke growls and pulls her toward him, rough but still mindful of her injury. His mouth crushes into hers, working her bottom lip between both of his. There a nip – almost a reprimand, she suspects, for her earlier teasing – and when she opens her mouth in protest he takes full advantage, his tongue in her mouth, deepening the kiss until she's whimpering for oxygen.

When he pulls away, he looks only half as dishevelled as she feels.

"I've managed fine this long," he tells her, leaning his forehead on hers. "Besides. I know of a few things that can be done that don't require any kind of nudity."

The look he gives her can only be described as smouldering, and her mouth goes dry trying to imagine the possibilities.

"But," he goes on, abruptly pulling away from her, "we'll have to discuss it some time when we're not in the middle of a mission. Pack up your stuff, we'll head out in five minutes."

She gapes at his retreating back, trying to figure out what just happened.

終わり

* * *

__

**Author's Note:**

> I hope you enjoyed the story! As part of the SasuSakuFestival, please go to the ssfest page and vote, like and/or reblog, it would be majorly appreciated!
> 
> クリ


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